12 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Became a Waitress

1. You will never get a reliable paycheck. As a waitress in Wisconsin, I make $2.33 an hour, which is the legal minimum wage my state requires employers to pay us aside from our tips. That's not enough to live on, so we depend on an 18 percent tip. Honestly, we get a little grouchy when we get a 5 percent tip when we're busting our butts to give somebody the best service we can. I work 25 hours a week — the restaurant I work at is only open for dinner — and I can expect to take home anywhere from $300 to $400 a week. And though corporate-owned restaurants offer health insurance if you're full-time, the place I work is family-owned and unfortunately doesn't offer any type of insurance. I have insurance now through my parents until I'm 26, but after that, I will need to pay out of pocket or have a job that provides it.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

2. Generous tips are rare, but they do happen. I once had a table of 12 people, so gratuity was included. The gratuity ended up being $160, but they tipped me in addition to that, so I had double the tip I should have gotten. When a situation like that happens, you sort of assume it was a mistake and you don't want to let the person know. But I believe in karma, so I go up to them and let them know the tip is already included. I did that, and the man who paid for the table goes, "I know, this is all for you. You did a great job, thank you very much."

3. Customers will judge you based on how you look. Even though your appearance doesn't affect the service you're giving them, it definitely is a major factor in the results of the tip at the end. On Mother's Day, I forgot to take out my tongue ring and I served a table that didn't tip me because of it. After the meal, they went up to my boss and said, "We didn't like our service because our waitress had a tongue ring." Even though we grow up hearing not to judge a book by its cover, unfortunately, people do.

4. Customers will sabotage their food to get a free meal. There are definitely people who kind of make it a hobby to get their meal free. Once they know a restaurant will comp their meal if there's a hair in it, they will come back and keep doing it until they can't get away with it anymore. Obviously, hair does get in the food sometimes. I wouldn't say this happens a lot, but when you're halfway through your burger and you say found a hair in the middle, it's kind of questionable for a place that doesn't form their own patties. If the patties are already formed, how did the hair get all the way in the center of your burger? But of course, you can't claim that they're lying, so you apologize and you comp their meal.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

5. Teamwork is more crucial than you think. When you're a waitress, you learn to read other waiters' and waitresses' faces, and you can tell when they're stressed out. If you have a second, you'll ask what you can do to help, and when you're in that situation, they'll help you. It's such a relief knowing that if somebody sees your drinks for a table have been sitting up at the bar for a few minutes, they don't even have to ask you, they'll just bring it out to the table.

6. Food tastes better when it's discounted, so take advantage of it while you can. When I worked at a chain restaurant, the food was half off, so I ate it way more than I care to admit. I never got sick of it though, because food tastes a lot better when it's discounted. I went back after I no longer worked there and I noticed the food didn't taste as good when I had to pay full price.

7. Supportive shoes will keep a tough shift from being terrible. Shoes are probably the most important part of waitressing. You need shoes with traction, support, and comfort. You need to be able to move from table to table quickly without worrying you're going to slip. If you don't have good shoes, the pain will start in your feet, then travel up to your knees, and after carrying those big, heavy trays all day, you'll start to feel it in your back. You need to be able to put a little pep in your step when you're working, and that comes from having reliable shoes.

8. People really will dine and dash, and you can get fired for it. There was an incident at the restaurant where I work where a guest tricked one of our waiters by saying he was going to pay half cash, half card. He gave us the card first and said he would leave the rest in cash, but the table left after they got their card back, so they only paid for half of their bill. The waiter was left paying half of a $300 bill for a dinner that he didn't even get to sit down and enjoy. Most restaurants will have the server pay for the meal, but some places are stricter than others. At my old job, the chain restaurant, you had to pay for the dinner or that was your last shift. Corporate-owned restaurants are a little different than personally owned businesses. They can afford to have someone walk out, but they feel that you should have been paying attention to your table even though you're taking care of seven other tables at the same time. I wish people knew how much this affected us. Because it's not, "Oh, your table didn't pay for their dinner, that's OK." Some places it's, "Guess what, you're paying for their dinner or you're fired."

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

9. Having a positive attitude at all times is essential. When I go out to eat, I expect a waiter or waitress to have a smile on their face and act like they're enjoying their job, even if they hate it. I don't like seeing somebody miserable at their job, even though I know how miserable it can be. Nobody wants to feel like they shouldn't have gone out to eat. Making guests feel unwelcome is a guaranteed way to get a lower tip.

10. Most customers will be oblivious to your other responsibilities. I wish people would look around and realize they're not the only person I'm taking care of. But unfortunately, most people aren't understanding and they think they should be the no. 1 priority even if you have five different no. 1 priorities. When it's a busy night and everything is taking a little bit longer, people will get upset. And it will reflect in the tip they gave you.

11. It's scarily easy to become stuck in this job. If I could go back and tell myself something, it would be to run. It would be not to do it. It would be to go to college. Because waitressing kind of sucks you in — I've been doing it now for five years. You get trapped in the loop of always having cash, and it's hard to give up cash in your hand every night to a paycheck every two weeks.

12. Awesome guests will make up for the awful ones. The people that joke around with you and want to make their dining experience fun will make it fun for you to take care of them. When you do get those people that are there to have a good time and crack jokes to you, that's what will get you through a shift. You'll deal with unreasonable customers who won't be happy no matter what you do. And you'll deal with customers who will give you low tips for unfair reasons. But you'll also meet a lot of awesome people who make your shift that much better.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Cosmopolitan participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.